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princely-dots · 7 years

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Let Me Tell You About Homestuck

AN ILLUSTRATIVE PHENOMENON

- a midterm essay about Homestuck and how it impacted illustration-

don’t repost or whatever- this is solely evidence of how I am trash and I would like to keep it that way.

“If I have to name one thing I find infinitely important about Homestuck, It would be the way in which it pushes the definition of “webcomic” unlike any other work ever created.” Known to many and few, Homestuck by Andrew Hussie is one of the world's greatest examples of hypermedia utilized to its maximum extent. An instrumental piece in the popularization of hypercomics, the massive multimedia story was a seven year-long marvel spurred by what many consider to be an illustrative masterpiece. Known for both its doltish ‘cartoon casual’ style and its stunning imagery alike, Homestuck spanned 8126 pages, included over four hours of animation and music, and featured twenty mini games; a feat no other comic or work has ever come even close to matching. Somehow this gargantuan, uselessly complicated, mess of a creation myth built an audience of millions and inspired a culture of internet art that had previously only been in its infancy. Likely this was due to Homestuck’s unique ability to encapsulate the millennial experience, as well as its seemingly endless penchant for seamlessly mixing irreverent and profound content and how this hypercomic tackled the nigh impossible task of illustrating life. With its mass appeal and astounding popularity, the right timing, and its miscellany of illustrative strategies and media- Homestuck changed the definition of “webcomic” and was one of the most influential pieces of illustration of the internet.

In order to truly grasp the reach of this Webcomic of webcomics one must understand its roots. This infamous ‘interactive’ epic started on an MSPaint Adventures forum and among the Gangbunch threads of the Penny Arcade forums. Andrew Hussie, the elusive mastermind behind the MSPA endeavors, started his fifth project, Homestuck, after the conclusion of his previous project Problem Sleuth, which had a small degree of success but was essentially still an incredibly niche comic whose fans were predominantly those active on its specific forums. Using an ‘enter command/ suggestion box’ format, Hussies projects imitated adventure based click through games and command based rpgs. Following the template of other interactive webcomics such as RubyQuest, Hussie experimented with smaller scale works before undertaking the epic that Homestuck would become- 1-Jailbreak, 2- Bard Quest (which ended in 24 days), 3- Blood Spade (which was a single page that would later on be elaborated on in Homestuck itself,) and 4- Problem Sleuth (the only other large-scale work Hussie completed). Jailbreak was a simple exercise in puzzles and taking commands for story direction from readers; Problem Sleuth started in the same way but throughout its course its seemingly nonsensical leanings began to demonstrate a strict logic for its own world. Amongst the array of ridiculous suggestions from the forum, a plot and complex world evolved. Homestuck started with the suggestions of readers as well, but when it began to gain traction and the number of suggestions increased to number in the thousands per page, Hussie stopped taking direct “orders”. The only difference that this made was a slight decrease in some of the more absurd commands. However, Homestuck fundamentally was created through a confounding process of scattering random features along and going back later on to tie them in, which gave the comic the appealing open endedness that it was known for. To describe what Homestuck is known for is to describe Homestuck itself, which is almost an impossible feat. The fascinating thing is that it can’t really be described, which is part of the enigma. To define it would be to limit it, because it is so expansive and so complex that Homestuck is impossible to confine to one statement well. The three closest descriptors are still devastatingly vague when compared to the work they’re attempting to define. The first and second are from the author himself, “A creation myth about kids in houses” which is equally inaccurate as it is accurate, and “ a story that’s also a puzzle.” The third is from the tumblr user Wakraya, who said “This isn’t a story about Four Kids playing a Game, getting involved in shenanigans and trying to live a happy ever after as villains try to plot on destroying them and reality. Homestuck is the tale of the characters from a webcomic, becoming self-aware, and escaping the grasp of the author and the narrative.”

As interesting as it might seem alone, a huge part of Homestuck’s rise to popularity was indebted to Tumblr, which at the time of Homestuck’s release was only about two years old. Remarkably enough, the popularity and overall success of both Homestuck and Tumblr are directly correlated. In October of 2009, Tumblr only had about 90,000 users, that number skyrocketed in May of 2010 and then more than doubled by October of the same year- notably a sharp increase happening after/during June. On the last day of May in 2010, the first ‘long’ animation panel, [S] Descend, was posted. The ambitious panel was four minutes, thirteen seconds long, and was accompanied by original music.The excitement over the update heralded a rush of interest, but not nearly as much as on June 10th, 2010, when Homestuck started a new section called Hivebent, a part of the story which introduced an additional cast of characters and could be understood without previous canon knowledge. Both of these points in Homestuck correspond eerily close to the sharp changes with user numbers in Tumblr. Being that most of the interaction and dialogue within the fandom happened on Tumblr posts, it can be concluded that, in the least, the relationship of the two was symbiotic. Of course this is only a testament to how massive Homestuck was merely fanbase-wise. One of the most famous panels, [S] Cascade, was posted to the hosting site Newgrounds to avoid the MSPA servers that were unable to handle the mass of people flooding it after each update. However, it was popular enough that the sheer number of simultaneous hits on the animation actually crashed the Newgrounds servers as well. In short, Homestuck had a colossal fanbase that at one point registered in one million unique visitors to its site every day.

Indubitably, this maximalist hypercomic had a reach long enough that it could influence a massive audience and leave a lasting impact. Most notably, this impact was to revolutionize what webcomics were understood to be. Homestuck pushed the boundaries of common illustration by completely exploiting the media in which Hussie made it, “The result is an unusual media hybrid. Something that reads like a heavily illustrated novel [...] It’s a story I’ve tried to make as much a pure expression of its medium as possible.” It became the definition of hypercomic through its extreme use of multimedia and hyperfiction, a work written and presented electronically encouraging nonlinearity due to the disconnect between panels/pages via hyperlink. In other words, since the reader has to click on the next hyperlink to proceed in the story, it becomes interactive. But it wasn’t only through its hyperlinks that Homestuck changed the delivery of its illustration, it was in its presentation. Most famously, the comic was made predominantly with only one panel per page. These illustrations would often be emphasized as gifs, occasionally with music, and sometimes the pages would be full fledged animations. However, Hussie did not stick to only a strict construction of one panel size per page; he utilized the medium to its utmost extent, sometimes going so far as to even manipulate the webpage itself in different parts of the story, often breaking the fourth wall. Panel walls were also frequently broken to enhance the story- some pages would be scrollable instead of confined to a small rectangle,some would have guided movements, and sometimes during updates the button to click to the next page would be seen as glitching out until the next pages were available to read. Sometimes the reader would even have the opportunity to choose between several different hyperlinks to different storylines. Hussie’s innovative use of the medium didn’t stop at just page composition, he also was one of the first to use spoilers (chat logs) to show the text, versus using speech bubbles as traditional comics and most previous webcomics would have. This allowed for a staggering amount of text to be included in a single page, as the majority of the story in Homestuck was conveyed through IM dialogue.

What more, the innovation and genius didn’t stop at just the mechanics. The depth and freedom of the story itself as well as the interaction between the comic, author, and fandom pushed creative boundaries. Categorically, the most significant aspect of Homestuck was the sheer expansiveness of the story and the hundreds of characters within it. The world building was so intensive it easily rivals the big names of fiction such as Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. Hussie created grounded cultures, believable backstories, and the legacies of multiple timelines with stupefyingly thought out motifs, archetypes, and symbolism woven throughout. Most importantly, Homestuck presented a very real and relatable use of the internet, contrasting most modern media which often presents an outdated understanding of how young people are using technology. The majority of the relationships between the characters in Homestuck are substantiated purely over startlingly realistic IM conversations over the internet rather than in person- something that hasn’t really been successfully portrayed yet. “For kids who grew up on IM and chatrooms the rambling cadence of Homestuck dialogue is immediately familiar.” The characters are also beautifully realistic and diverse; they are by no means perfect, they all have successes and failures, and overall they are dimensional and built as though they are real people. Dave, a main protagonist, said, “rose we dont have fuckin “arcs” we are just human beings” which plays out extensively. Hussie uses alternate timelines, time loops, and other various time shenannigans to explore character reactions for hundreds of pages, only to wind up making the entire “arc” invalid by switching to a different timeline and saying the other one died. Interestingly enough however, these time capers weren’t just arbitrary, Hussie used multiple timelines and time travel between these to justify how most of the important plot events happened. They were legitimately vital to the ultimate timeline of the story, for without them and their endless intricacies the story would be so riddled with holes it would make swiss cheese look solid.

The remarkable tangle of plot devices and characterization wasn’t the only thing to make Homestuck such a memorable piece though. It was also the experimental, testing, push and pull between Hussie’s writing and the fandom reactions. Oftentimes Hussie’s future decisions for the comic were affected by the fandom’s opinions, whether he was inspired by their headcanons or was trying to get a rise from them, it resulted in a constantly engaging exchange that kept the fandom active when the comic was. The fandom’s in depth examination of the comic and speculation in between updates created a web of comprehension that made understanding the complexities of Homestuck possible; it also made a culture that far surpassed what could be expected of just a normal work of illustration- it became a movement.

The openness of the world and the sheer amount of material there was to work with, paired with the analytical vigor of the fandom to understand every aspect of its universe created endless sources of inspiration for old and new artists alike. Not to mention, every fan-made character and headcanon was confirmed canon by Hussie, which added a massive amount of encouragement to anyone with an idea.

Hussie took advantage of the enthusiasm of the fanartists, even inviting many onto the project to feature guest art, compose music for, and even illustrate some of the animations and video games in Homestuck. This type of collaboration was another enchanting characteristic of the comic that not only made Homestuck all the more special for its fans, but also made it a huge source of inspiration that spoke great lengths to the achievements possible through the internet, and the opportunities out there for illustrators and other artists when they are persistent. After all, Homestuck started off practically unknown.

It was this unknown webcomic that would eventually grow to leave an undeniable legacy in illustration. After gathering a community around it, it is no surprise that thousands of artists were influenced by its anthology of styles and ideas. For one, it completely remodeled what was considered a “webcomic” and popularized the use of massive multi-media and hyperfiction. Hundreds of webcomics followed in its tracks, all of them showing signs of Homestuck’s influence. Some of the most memorable of these being Ava’s Demon, Thunderpaw, Spacepaw, Neokosmos, Living When Dead, The Black Road to Oz, and Prequel. Many featured the hyperlink format, single panel design, simplified art styles-ranging to highly rendered art (like Homestuck did), insert command styles, animation and gifs included to forward the stories and add to the effectiveness of panels or communicate without words, spoilers to include more text, modifying scroll capabilities in the illustration, the web pages, and more. The fanartists could also find considerable renown online due to the immense popularity of the comic, several artists got noticed and hired by Hussie, and/or by other companies because of their art getting shared around by the hoards of ‘homestucks’- the colloquialism for the fans of the hypercomic. Artists such as Ikimaru, Lemonteaflower, Viivus, Shelby Cragg, Hillary Esdaile, and Emptyfeet, gained loyal followings and were able to pursue illustration thanks to the support that spawned along with their roots in the fandom that blossomed from Homestuck. By far the most well-known of the artists that came from underneath Homestuck’s influence/ employ is Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale, an actual click through adventure like the ones Homestuck was modeled on. Even if they didn’t make it to the big lights themselves with success, countless illustrators/artists were influenced by some aspect or another of homestuck or its fandom , and that legacy can still be traced through tumblr.

To a really astounding degree, so much art came from the fandom and permeated through the internet illustration culture. Pure multimedia is being used on such a grander scale now that illustrators have been exposed to works like Homestuck, and it’s truly multi-layered illustrations and stories with more than just drawing. Pixel art and talksprites also experienced a surge in popularity. Homestuck even resulted in two forms of illustration that were rarely seen, if not seen at all online, previously: pieces dubbed “lyric-stucks.” These were collections of illustrations that corresponded with lyrics, oftentimes using large amounts of the content/symbolism from Homestuck to drive meaning. These types of series were designed solely for the tumblr scrolling format, where the images would connect on the tops and bottoms to each other so that they could be experienced naturally on the web. These evolved into solely long art posts without the lyrics, and although both of these forms of illustration might have existed outside of the Homestuck umbrella, their frequency beneath it is irrefutable to anyone who inhabited tumblr during the years the comic was most active. A final artistic tool that surfaced with the Homestuck inspiration storm was the character template that it supplied for future illustrators struggling to develop fully realized characters. This template followed a very basic schematic, a symbol for the character, a typing quirk which demonstrated their personality, a color to be directly associated with the character, a classpect (a more accessible personality qualifier than the Myer Briggs format), and a series of quadrants for categorizing interpersonal relationships. Interestingly, the quadrants have managed to soak into social media and fandoms that aren’t even close to Homestuck- the idea was so easily applicable.

It was this type of universality that made Homestuck such a global success. Fans could be found everywhere from Korea to the Netherlands to Brazil and on. Its reach and the participation of all these cultures consolidating into a single community for a single work of art is what embodied the spirit of Homestuck. This hypercomic, in the plainest sense, was an illustrated culmination of the internet experience. It was a seven year event that can never be experienced again, as waiting for updates and the happenings in between was a necessary part of this near performative art piece. Those that participated were touched by it. The beauty of it was endlessly interpretable, and while the readers were waiting for the next pages to be released, they were discussing it. The fandom was not confined to just illustration, they explored the possibilities through every form of art. It encouraged conspiracy and intense transcendental examination to see it as more than just a webcomic. It was an actual adventure; it was a happening. This was part of the illustrative genius of Homestuck: Hussie wrote the comic reflectively for the fandom’s reactions. To a degree, it was a social experiment. It was an illustrative motion, manipulated to see how far the medium of hyperfiction could be used, the humor could be pushed, the drama could be taken, and how absurd and complex it could get before it started really losing its momentum. Miraculously, the only periods in which it lost its vigor were during the hiatuses that Hussie took. Unfortunately, his hiatus between 2013 and 2016 took a huge toll on the population of the Homestuck fandom when updates were so drastically sporadic that even the movement known as “Hiatus-stuck”, which provided the fandom with increasingly nonsensical memes and art, couldn’t keep it afloat. But just because the fans migrated to other fandoms doesn’t mean that they didn’t take Homestuck and its influences with them. The meaning of “webcomic” was still changed in their eyes, and the ideas that they generated in the light of Homestuck’s groundbreaking demonstration of the extent of illustration in the hyper world can still be credited to Andrew Hussie’s masterpiece: a subcultural phenomenon of the internet. (( if you want to read the doc itself, with the photos and the citations: read it here. ))

#homestuck #essays #midterm #my writing #writing #illustration #homestuck impact #history #tumblr history #homestuck history #webcomics #blogging #art history #college

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